She was 82 years old and had four days of unrelenting abdominal pain.
The woman, admitted to a hospital in Bologna, Italy, arrived with a distended abdomen, constipation, and vomiting. Tests showed elevated white blood cell counts, and a CT scan revealed a solid object blocking her intestines. The surgeons decided to operate urgently before the tissue began to die from a lack of blood flow.
When they opened the abdomen, they found a phytobezoar: a compact mass of undigested plant matter measuring just over 5.5 centimeters. But when they removed it, something moved. A small body jumped out of the mass and climbed onto the surgical drapes. It was not an insect, as they initially thought, but a terrestrial isopod, a relative of crabs and shrimp, with seven pairs of legs and a segmented exoskeleton.
Doctors believe that the woman accidentally ingested it along with unwashed fruit or vegetables, and that the plant capsule surrounding it kept it protected from digestive acids for days. She recovered from the surgery and, 18 months later, was still alive in a nursing home.